Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Sweet potatoes were domesticated about 3000 BC in South America. In 2009, 107 642 391+ tons of sweet potatoes were produced. Biggest producer is China with 81 212 926 tons. Over a half of the Chinese sweet potatoes and probably at least 40-45% of the world's crop are used to feed pigs.
Biggest producer per capita are Solomon islands with 162.5 kg.
Worldwide, 15.6 kg of sweet potatoes were available per potential consumer. That's enough to last you 6 days and 16 hours at 2000 calories a day, and it would cover your protein needs as well ( up to 50 grams per day ). Also these 15.6 kg ( 34.3 lbs ) could supply you with over a year worth of Vitamin A.
Purple sweet potato has a lot of cancer-fighting antioxidants and also has a very good taste.

Crop of 2009 could feed 126.8 million people, or an entire population of Japan.

8 510 621 hectares were used for batata production in 2009, a territory slightly smaller than Azerbaijan and slightly bigger than South Carolina.

Sweet potatoes cost around $150 -300 per ton. World crop is about $14-16 billion dollars worth.